Can I feed adult food to Gunnar?

[Adrienne]

I absolutely disagree with NOT feeding puppies puppy food. There are vital trace minerals and other nutrients in proper amounts, which are essential for puppies to develop properly, in puppy food. It is designed for them. What causes bone and joint problems in large breed dogs is primarily being overweight as puppies. You can cause a lot of damage by depriving your puppy of these nutrients. I recommend looking into it further and consider your sources from where you get your information. Talk to vets. Believe it or not, they have gone to school for a very long time and studied anatomy and physiology of animals, know how their bones develop etc.... and you can even find a nutritionalist.

I've had GSDs, Labs, larger sized mutts, Doberman, smaller dogs and I always fed puppy food for a year. Get a premium one like Chicken Soup or Canidae, Innova....there are several. I've never had a dog with any hip or other skeletal problems what so ever, other than a little old age arthritis.

If you look at the analysis between an adult food (say Chicken soup adult formula) and a large breed specific food (Eagle Pac large and giant breed puppy food) you will find that there is actually less protein, fat, etc. in the large breed forumula because they don't need high protein or extras that are in regular puppy food. If you pick a good food you shouldn't have to feed your large breed dog puppy or size specific food. For example...

Chicken soups adult forumla analysis:
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 24
Crude Fat 14
Moisture 10
Crude Fiber 3
Omega-6 Fatty Acids (min) 2.2
Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min) 0.4
Sodium 0.3


Now Eagle Pac large and giant breed puppy food:

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein min. 23
Crude Fat min. 12
Moisture max. 10
Crude Fiber max. 3.5

The only difference is that the giant/large breed forumla has LESS protein, fat, and fiber, because you don't want growth spurts like you get with regular puppy food. Chicken soup adult forumla will be perfect for Gunnar with everything he needs. So I guess my point is that he is not missing any nutrients by eating an adult forumla, he is actually gaining some nutrients.

 

[Doberluv]

Yes, I see...these premium foods are good. I guess in general, many foods do not compare that way. So, you're right, some research into the various brands and types is a good thing to do. I did what my vets always told me as far as feeding...for years and always had healthy dogs. The only time I didn't listen (LOL) was with my recent vet who tried to push Science Diet on me. That stuff is garbage!

 

[Mordy]

regular puppy food is not a good thing to feed to large breed puppies. if you must, choose a large breed puppy formula.

it is true that puppy food is designed for puppies, but it is not designed for the specific needs of large and giant breed puppies. studies have shown that a lower mineral content for example is more beneficial to them during their fastest growth phase - it's not only a matter of being overweight.

details like these are the reason why there even are specific large breed puppy foods - because severe health issues arose in giant breed puppies eating the newly designed puppy foods when they entered the market. back then, puppy foods were introduced because adult foods were generally of lower quality and not supplying sufficient nutrients for anything but adult maintenance - so breeders had to supplement the diets of pregnant and lactating bitches and puppies.

puppies make up for the additional nutritional needs they have by eating more food per pound of body weight, so an adult food labeled "for all lifestages" meets their needs without being excessive, otherwise AAFCO wouldn't label it as such.

as for vets - yes, they are highly educated people, but they do not receive in-depth training about nutrition, and what they are taught is generally material sponsored by "big players" in the pet food market, such as hill's, iams, waltham and so on. hardly unbiased research, since they have a vested interest in selling their products and a large profit margin.

a note on the chicken soup adult dog food: it is not an all lifestages food, only maintenance.

when it comes to large and giant breed puppies, i do think eagle pack is the best commercial food. no other company has done that much specific research and trials on these breeds, their development and growth specifics and the effect nutrition has on them.

 

[Renee750il]

Really, the bottom line is, when in doubt, ask Mordy . . .

 

[Adrienne]

Mordy, is Gunnar going to do well on Chicken Soup adult forumula since he is supplemented with raw one meal per day? Chicken quarters, cottage cheese, yogurt, offal, eggs, etc.

 

[Mordy]

if the chicken soup isn't the only thing you feed him, i'd say it's fine.

 

[Adrienne]

Thanks! I plan to have him fully on raw once summer is here. When I did raw only with him before (age 3 months) he had massive loose stools and was waking up numerous times during the night to go out. Since it is my last semester of college I need my sleep! LOL!
Hopefully with being used to some raw the transition will be easier this time around.

Thanks again!

 

[Barb04]

Barb, what breed is Kona? She's beautiful.

Kona is a bandog (1/2 american pitbull and 1/2 neopolitan mastiff)

 

[Barb04]

Mordy, I feed Max & CJ the Eagle Pak holistic dog food. I didn't buy it for Kona because they don't sell holistic puppy or holistic large breed puppy food. Eagle Pak says you can feed their holistic food to puppies, but I really wanted to use one for a large breed.

 

[Doberluv]

Really, the bottom line is, when in doubt, ask Mordy . .

I'm kind of new here. Tell me about Mordy. Maybe he'll let me pick his brain.

 

[Adrienne]

Mordy has made a websight called the dog food project. It goes into detail on how to read product labels and has a lot of other great information related to dog food. Click on Mordy's signature to browse the page, it's been really helpful to me!